Remote Support Viewer

Question

I’m trying to get the EchoVNC Viewer in Paratext 8 (Shift+Help > Advanced > Start Remote Support Viewer) to connect to a remote computer. I see the remote computer under Partner ID, but when I select it and click OK, I just get the message Failed to connect to server! Since no servers show up in the VNC Server box, I guess that is not so strange. Why are no VNC servers available? (F.Y.I. I’m running Paratext 8.0.100.59 on Windows 10 Home version 1803.)

Answer 1

Hi anon716631,
To initiate a connection you must double-click the computer name which appears in the list of Partner IDs.

(Clicking OK tries to select the item in the dropdown at the top of the dialog. It doesn’t OK the item you select in the window below. After a successful connection, the dropdown at the top of the dialog will show you computers which you have previously connected to.)

Answer 2

It’s a long time since I’ve tried to do this, I’m trying to do this again from PT 9 but I cannot get it to work. Is this still supported and working for others? I note that when the user clicks for help they get a “Paratext 7 remote support window”. When the user clicks they get an 'Instant VNC error: "EchoServer 69.665.34.247 Failed to connect to the EchoServer. Verify that you have entered correct userID, password and EchoServer IP/DNS. Could it be firewall related (Windows 10 Defender)? Thanks.

Comments

This server has been down for a long time and as far as I know, we have not been hearing much about it, though a few people have filed bugs.

Now that we have screensharing in Slack, Skype, and Zoom plus Windows 10 Remote Desktop Connection, plus remote support systems like TeamViewer or Bomber/BeyondTrust, there are other ways to do more or less the same thing. And of course, we still have Paratext Live.

How loudly would who scream if we took this out of Paratext? It is hard for us to support it well. As you have just seen. And there are alternatives that are maintained by people whose tools MUST be able to provide similar functionality.

Jonathan+Robie

Answer 3

Perhaps it would be better to make the feature into a link that connects to a page explaining how to use one of the alternate methods of remote support that you mentioned. Since some users might not know how to use those services.
Or maybe change the feature so that it sends a request for a remote session to support personnel?